Assemblies versionning details

[Arnaud Debaene]

Hello all,

In this article (http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...3/buildapps2/),
it is said in the "Version numbers" paragraph :

"However, if the runtime sees that there are [in the GAC] two
assemblies with the same major.minor version, the runtime will bind to
the assembly with the latest build.revision. In other words, the
runtime will bind to version 2.5.719.5 even if the application was
bound to version 2.5.100.7 when it was built"

Although this article is written by Richter himself, it is quite old
and based on beta 1 version of the framework. I couldn't locate any
other article that explains clearly what part of the version number is
used when binding to an assembly : is it all the four numbers of the
version, or just the major / minor pair?

Say I have my A.exe app installed, which installs "shared.dll"
assembly version 1.5.0.1 in the GAC. What happens if, afterwards, my
B.exe application installs shared.dll version 1.5.0.2? Which version
of shared.dll will be used by A.exe? It can makes a huge difference on
versionning policy when building shared assemblies!

Thanks,

Arnaud
MVP - VC

[Mattias Sjögren]

Arnaud,

I couldn't locate any
other article that explains clearly what part of the version number is
used when binding to an assembly : is it all the four numbers of the
version, or just the major / minor pair?
All four.

Say I have my A.exe app installed, which installs "shared.dll"
assembly version 1.5.0.1 in the GAC. What happens if, afterwards, my
B.exe application installs shared.dll version 1.5.0.2? Which version
of shared.dll will be used by A.exe?

Nothing should happen. A.exe continues to load 1.5.0.1.

Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/
Please reply only to the newsgroup.

[Richard Grimes [MVP]]

Arnaud Debaene wrote:

Although this article is written by Richter himself, it is quite old
and based on beta 1 version of the framework. I couldn't locate any
I guess this was a beta 1 'feature'.
other article that explains clearly what part of the version number is
used when binding to an assembly : is it all the four numbers of the
version, or just the major / minor pair?
Unless you use a config file or a policy file, the process picks up the
*exact* version mentioned in the manifest of the process

Say I have my A.exe app installed, which installs "shared.dll"
assembly version 1.5.0.1 in the GAC. What happens if, afterwards, my
B.exe application installs shared.dll version 1.5.0.2? Which version
of shared.dll will be used by A.exe? It can makes a huge difference on
versionning policy when building shared assemblies!

it will load 1.5.0.1, if you remove this version from the GAC then a
FileLoadException will be thrown - the runtime will not attempt to load
1.5.0.2

Richard
--
my email ev******@zicf.bet is encrypted with ROT13 (www.rot13.org)

[Arnaud Debaene]

Arnaud Debaene wrote:

Hello all,

Ok, thanks to all

Arnaud